Rwanda fits in a week.
A gorilla permit in the Virungas, a game drive on the Akagera plains, the Nyungwe canopy walkway and a coffee morning in Kigali. What each day is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
The bookings that fill a Rwanda week.
Gorilla permits go months ahead, Akagera runs on a single early start, and Kigali is the day everyone underestimates. These seven do the heavy lifting on a first visit.
Walking Tour with a Local Guide
Walk Kigali with a local guide past Inema Art Center, markets, and downtown, with optional lake or hills.
From $30 per person
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★ 5.0Sells out in seasonPrivate Full-day Kigali City Tour with Pickup and LunchFrom $18079 reviews
★ 4.5Worth the 5amKigali Walking TourFrom $3078 reviews
★ 4.9Steady favouriteKigali E-Bike City Tour with BreakfastFrom $3973 reviews
★ 5.0Fits any weekPrivate 1 Day Akagera Big Five Safari with pick up and lunch.From $44072 reviews
★ 4.8Guides rate itMount Kigali and Cultural Village Tour with SnacksFrom $3562 reviews
★ 5.0Good first bookingKigali City TourFrom $12159 reviews
The hour you plan the rest around.
Park headquarters at Kinigi by seven, a briefing under the volcanoes, then uphill through nettles and bamboo until the trackers stop walking. You get one hour with the family and the permit is bought months out. Everything else in a Rwandan week arranges itself around this morning.
Gorillas, chimps, or the plains?
Most Rwanda trips run seven days and fit two parks properly, not three. The Virungas want a full day and a permit bought months out. Akagera wants an early start. Nyungwe wants a night at the far end. Kivu is where the rest day goes.
Permit required
The Virunga morning
from $1,940 · 32 reviews
Kinigi at seven for the briefing, then two to six hours uphill depending on which family the trackers found overnight. Steep, wet underfoot, and the single thing most people fly here for. Buy the permit before you book the flights.
See the gorilla treks →
Out by six
The Akagera plains
from $205 · 105 reviews
The only savanna park in the country, three hours east of Kigali and flat enough to cover properly in a day. Giraffe and zebra on the northern plains before the heat, elephant and buffalo down by the lakes, a boat on Lake Ihema if the afternoon holds.
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Needs an overnight
The Nyungwe forest
from $440 · 32 reviews
Chimps at first light and a steel walkway strung sixty metres above the canopy. It is a long drive southwest through the tea estates, so build in a night at that end rather than trying to bounce back to Kigali the same evening.
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Kivu sends its boats out at dusk.
The fishermen leave Gisenyi in threes, hulls lashed together, singing to keep time, and work the water until first light. From the shore you hear them long before you pick out the lamps. Days on Kivu run slow on purpose, and the evening is the part people come back describing.
Rwandan coffee starts on a hillside.
Washing stations above Kivu, cupping tables in Kigali, and smallholder farms where you pick, pulp and roast a batch before anyone lets you drink it. Three mornings that explain why the country’s beans sell out abroad.
The capital rewards a slow morning.
Nyamirambo’s back streets, the fabric aisles at Kimironko, a moto up one of the ridges and brochettes at the end of it. Kigali is small enough to walk and quiet enough that you will want to.
An agaseke basket takes three days.
Sisal dyed with plant colour, coiled tight enough to hold water, and a pattern that tells you which hills the weaver comes from. Imigongo panels built up in ash and clay, pots turned by women’s cooperatives on the edge of the city. You sit down, make one badly, and understand the price of a good one.
Rwanda, park by park.
Kigali for the first night and the last. The Virungas for the permit day. Akagera for the plains, Nyungwe for the forest floor, Kivu for the days in between.
What shape is your day?
Trek, drive, paddle, weave or eat. Every option behind these twelve is priced and reviewed, so choose the shape of the day first and work backwards from there.
The whole country is a day’s drive.
Rwanda is the size of Wales and tarmacked most of the way across. Akagera and Musanze are a morning out of Kigali. Nyungwe and Kivu are worth the extra hours and a night at the other end.
Kigali first, then the parks.
Land late, give Kigali the morning while the altitude settles, then run east for the plains and northwest for the permit day. In that order the driving works and the early starts land where you can take them.
Day 1
The capital, on foot
Kimironko market, a roastery on one of the ridges, then an afternoon walk through Nyamirambo. Kigali is calm, walkable and closes early, which suits a first day.
Plan day one →
Day 2
East to Akagera
Out of the city by six, through the hills to the eastern plains. Giraffe and zebra before the heat builds, lunch at the lodge, a boat on Lake Ihema, back after dark.
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Day 3
The Virunga permit
Drive up to Musanze the night before, briefing at Kinigi at seven, then uphill through the bamboo until the trackers stop. Gaiters and rain gear whatever the forecast says.
Plan the trek →
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